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| The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story | 
| Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy Used: $9.01
You Save: $14.94 (62%)
New (43) Collectible (9) from $13.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  87 reviews
Sales Rank: 12844
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0393061728
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5318350943841
EAN: 9780393061727
ASIN: 0393061728
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Sound Copy. Mild Reading Wear.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Zookeepers Wife October 6, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is an excellent story, and the realization that it is, in fact a true story, makes it even more interesting. I would recomend it to anyone that is a history buff or that has an intersst in the experience of the Jews during WWII.The descriptions of the animals, and the flota and fawna of Poland was so realistic that I felt that I was there! Written from the perspective of a Polish Catholic woman living during the war gave it a fresh perspective. A Great Read!!!
 Didn't Deliver October 3, 2007
21 out of 39 found this review helpful
Based on the great reviews, I couldn't wait to read this book. I can't describe how let down I was after I finished it. Although this was a WWII story I had never heard of, the story was disjointed as the author went on forever with descriptions about beetles, buffalo and cows and forgot the real reason for telling this story. I was expecting more insight on the Guests and their feelings during this horrible experience, not a tutorial on bugs. Just when I thought there was hope for this story, the author would go off course with rambling, flowery prose that just didn't cut it.
Save your money or check it out of the library.
Remaining Human In An Inhuman World October 3, 2007
24 out of 26 found this review helpful
"How do you retain a spirit of affection and humor in a crazed, homicidal, unpredictable society?" That is the question Antonina Zabinski -- and her muse, Diane Ackerman -- poise through this unforgettable book.
Jan and Antonina Zbinski were Polish Christian zookeepers who managed to save over three hundred Jews by hiding them in clear sight -- in the empty zoo cages. The premise would stretch credibility, except it's true, and annotated in Antonina's memoirs.
The obvious question from this novel is: who are the animals? We meet a number of animals here -- the badger who, when confronted with the German bombing, knocks on the door of a neighbor for salvation; the young hare who is a carnivore and a comic; the elephant baby Tuzinka, the 12th elephant born in captivity. These loving animals populate the lives of the Zabinskis and their "Guests" -- resistance activists and refugee Jews.
They, along with their "hosts" and other just people such as Janusz Korczak, who accompanied 200 pure and innocent children to their death at Treblinka, are among those who restore one's sense of humanity.
Then there are the others -- the Germans who are committed to destroying not only the lives but the ecology of the Poles whom they conquer. (Germans were rationed over 2,600 calories; Poles around 680; and Jews an astounding 184). Among the more fascinating -- if you can call it that -- conclusions that Ackerman reaches is that the Germans were breeding animals in order to form their own "master race" of extinct and superior animal beings.
This book broke my heart, mended it again, and also gave me a window into an area that -- to my knowledge -- has not been adequately explored: the worship and violation of nature by the Nazis as they sought to control the planet's genome. Just when I thought I knew about the savagery of that period of history, I find that there is more to know. It is one more reason for the world to say, "Never again!"
 Disappointed October 1, 2007
13 out of 36 found this review helpful
Having read the rave reviews, I was really looking forward to reading this book. It was very disappointng. I have not read any other books by this author but her language was so flowery and her descriptions ran on and on. Three pages on beetles! When she got into the characters and the times, it was fascinating but then off she would go on another tangent. I cannot recommend this book to anyone I know.
Lorraine Haven
The Mermaid and the Shield September 14, 2007
40 out of 42 found this review helpful
The age-old symbol of Warsaw is a mermaid wielding a sword. The zookeeper's wife in this book is Antonina Zabinski, an ardent animal lover who seems to have a special connection with animals and who is the wife of the keeper of the Warsaw Zoo when Poland is invaded at the start of World War II. As the war progresses, Antonina becomes a defender of Jews trapped in Warsaw (and effectively doomed to an almost certain death by slow starvation, or otherwise, by the Nazis) by helping to hide and save approximately 300 of them on the grounds of the vast Warsaw Zoo. In effect, Antonina can be seen as a mermaid with a shield defending Jews in Warsaw from the Nazi onslaught.
The book, however, is not just about Antonina. It is also about her husband, Jan, the keeper of the Warsaw Zoo, who fights for Poland at the beginning of the war but is captured and amazingly released, due to the efforts of a German zookeeper. After his release, Jan fights on as an officer in the underground Polish Army and rescues several hundred Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto who find sanctuary on the grounds of the Warsaw Zoo, which the Nazis allow to remain functioning on a limited basis (supposedly because of their love of nature and animals, although some of the gruesome events protrayed in this book tend to discount that supposition) and permit the Zabinski family to continue to live on the grounds of the zoo.
The book is also set against the larger backdrop of the Warsaw Holocaust and continues to the end of the war and shortly thereafter as the Soviets reopen the zoo in 1949 (Jan, however, resigns two years later under the pall of Stalinism).
The author calls her work one of "narrative nonfiction" which apparently means narrative storytelling imbued with facts (e.g., Antonina, who died in 1971, left behind a diary of her wartime experiences) to relate actual events. The book is a wonderful story of courage, faith (the Zabinskis' were Christians), and determination by both Jan and Antonina in the face of horror.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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